Life Compass

Summer Teacher Institute

Register now for the 2025 Summer Teacher Institute

Join us for Montrose School's LifeCompass 2025 Summer Teacher Institute: Leveraging Character Education to Reinvigorate Teaching Race in the U.S.

When:	Thursday-Friday, June 26-27, 2025
Where:	Montrose School 29 North Street Medfield, MA 02052
Featured Speaker:	Dr. Angel Parham Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture

Pay here

Travel & accommodation options

Pre-Conference

Wednesday, June 25
4:00-6:00 PM

Featured speaker & panel facilitator: Dr. Karen Bohlin

Panelists: Montrose teacher-practitioners will share their research in diverse areas of character education and reflect on the impact of this research at Montrose School.

Cocktail reception to follow.

Conference day 1

Thursday, June 26
9:00 AM-4:00 PM

Featured speaker & workshop leader: Dr. Angel Adams Parham

The session includes sharing research and leading workshops for teachers to develop teaching practice and expand curricular materials -- stories, art, history, and community connections.

Tea time & colloquy to follow.

Conference day 2

Thursday, June 26
9:00 AM-3:00 PM

Featured speakers include Ken Whitlock, Barbara Whitlock, & Dr. Karen Bohlin

The session includes sharing personal narratives, research and teaching practice.

The session will close with a panelist presentation and opportunities to contribute to a Toolkit to take the work of this conference to broader audiences.

Featured speakers

Karen Bohlin

Karen Bohlin, EdD is the Director of The Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute Research Affiliate at the Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University. Former Head of Montrose School and Founder and Director Emerita of Montrose’s LifeCompass Institute (f. 2017). Leader in Character Education and author and co-author of four books, countless articles and several LifeCompass Institute publications, Dr. Bohlin will lend her expertise throughout the conference. Her leading works include: Building Character through Schools (1999), Character Education through Literature: Awakening the Moral Imagination (2005), Happiness and Virtue: Beyond East & West: Toward a New Global Responsibility (2012), Citizenship & Higher Education (2005), Practical Wisdom for Agile Leadership: Formative Education’s Core DNA (22-23 & 23-24), “Educating the Heart: Why Poetry Matters” in Educating Character through the Arts (2023), “The Practical Wisdom Framework: A Compass for School Leaders” (2022), “Virtue: An Argument Worth Rehearsing” (2014), Toolkits: Stress Tests of Character (with Kris, 2020) & Courageous Dialogue (with Whitlock, 2021).

Angel Adams Parham

Dr. Angel Adams Parham serves as Associate Professor of Sociology and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. Leader in Classical Education and sociological research, Dr. Parham’s published works include: American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race (2017), The Black Intellectual Tradition: Reading Freedom in Classical Literature (with Dr. Anika Prather, 2022), “Congo Square as a Lieu de Souvenir in New Orleans: Race, Place, and the Complexities of Blackness” (Toulouse & Ewell, 2018), “Achieving Rooted Cosmopolitanism in a Digital Age” (Allen & White, eds, 2015), “Caribbean and Creole in New Orleans” (Munro & Britton, eds, 2012), “Language, Identity and Public Sphere in Haiti’s Diaspora: The evolution of the Haitian Creolists’ Internet Network” (Jackson, 2013)

Ken Whitlock

Ken Whitlock is a sought-after speaker and history teacher who grew up in segregated Richmond, VA and was part of the second year of “freedom of choice” integration of public schools at the tail end of Virginia’s “massive resistance” response to the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Supreme Court decision, which banned racial segregation in schools. Ken earned his BA in American Studies from Boston University and his MA in American History from the University of Virginia, and he has had a storied 50-year teaching career, including at public schools in Fairfax County, VA and for the last 39 years as history teacher and Senior Faculty Leader at Middlesex School in Concord, MA.

For more information

Contract Barbara Whitlock, program organizer and presenter

Director of Upper School at Montrose School

bwhitlock@montroseschool.org

Barbara Whitlock

Barbara Whitlock is the Director of Upper School at Montrose School and English teacher, with a BA in political science and journalism from Rider University and an MA in character education through the University of Birmingham, UK. Publications include “Mentorship Programs in Schools: Bridging the Character Education Gap” (Journal of Moral Education, March 2024) and The Courageous Dialogue Toolkit (with Karen Bohlin, 2021). Barbara has taught at Montrose School for 14 years, in both the English and history departments, as well as at Middlesex School and The Academy of Notre Dame.